Dear Grammar Nazi
Jun 09, 2010 
Dear Grammar Nazi,
I need your help. Your answer will effect a lot of people as we have a little bet going on at the office. See, Bill in Accounting says that ‘affect’ is a verb and ‘effect’ is a noun, but I’ve been using verbs for years now, and I’m certain ‘effect’ is a verb.
Rita in HR says we should ‘just look in a stinkin’ dictionary for crying out loud,’ but I trust you over a guy named “Merri” any day. So who’s right?
Counting on your help to pay off the bowling jersey and matching shoe set I splurged on. Best dressed bowler on the office team, baby!
Mr. Kirk N. Scottie
Dear Mr. Scottie,
Wow, I hate to think what kind of bets are taking place in your office that what I say would effect actual people. Right up there with the birds and bees. But perhaps you only meant I might affect people. I’ll pretend you did.
Ironically, you are both right.
Affect is a verb, as in to influence. For example:
- Wearing a bowling jersey will AFFECT people’s opinion of you.
Effect is a noun that can also be used as a verb. Noun:
- The special EFFECTS in Star Trek are totally outdated. (I’m just guessing you’re a Star Trek fan)
And as a verb, meaning to cause or bring about:
- HR should effect a change in the office betting policy.
Hope that helps as I’ve given you all that I got, capt’n.
Sincerely,
The Grammar Nazi
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You are both right! Effect is a noun or a verb depending on how you use it. Um, you can look it up on line, too. 🙂
Me + Grammar = nightmare.
I do grammar posts too, just to teach myself!
Thanks for this lesson.
~JD
I was pretty clear on this one, but it's always nice to have the lesson reinforced … thanks!
That's the best explanation I've seen yet! 😀
Thanks for making it so clear! Yay star trek!
funnily enough, i often use "affect" as a noun.
after reading your post i freaked and thought i was totally using the wrong word when i spoke, so i had to google and make sure i wasn't a dork!
ok, maybe the googling is enough to give me dork status.
Great grammar post Janet. Who knew Star Trek had so many levels. Yay. 🙂
Love your blog and am impressed you write and excel at diaper ball (one of my former favorite sports).
This is a hard one for me. One day I hope to understand some of these grammar issues that plague me.
Thanks for the reminder, GN!
Hi there!
Once I got to med school, I learned a new meaning of affect as a noun. A person's affect describes their outward emotional being.
People can have a flat affect, a depressed, an anxious affect…etc. Not used that much in day to day discussion, but it's another to add to the list!
Lydia, you're very right. I admit, Grammar Nazi skipped that meaning, since it's not very common. But thank you for pointing that out. My current affect is humbled. 😉
I've always known the differences between verb!affect and noun!effect — but only recently came across verb!effect. 🙂
I have to stop and think this one through each time. Sometimes I wanna smack whoever put these things into our language in the first place!
OOHHH good one. now if someone would help me with Lay and Lie!
Ugh, hate grammar. I often feel that while some rules should be followed, most can be broken while writing fiction! 🙂
Thank you for your comment on my blog!
Ah, this brings me back to high school AP English! Both words can be a verb or noun, but not with the same meaning.
Oh, thanks for this one! I've always been taught that affect is the verb. Sigh.
I always try to avoid using affect and effect. These words trip up my word processor every time.